Election Commission Secretary Md Jahangir Alam on Thursday said the European Union (EU) will not send a full-fledged election observation team to Bangladesh during its 12th parliamentary national election due to lack of financial allocation.
He was speaking to reporters at his Nirbachan Bhaban office on Thursday afternoon.
The EC secretary said: “The head of the delegation of the European Union in Bangladesh has sent an email to the chief election commissioner (CEC) through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There he mentioned that the meetings he had with various stakeholders of Bangladesh from July 8-23 were very fruitful and he thanked everyone for that.”
When asked whether a small group would come or not, he said: "As they continue to communicate [with us] later and come again, then maybe there can be another discussion."
Regarding the European Union's concern about the upcoming election, he said the email mentioned nothing in that regard.
They only thanked all concerned and said they would continue to communicate with the CEC.
The European Union may not send an observer team to the upcoming national parliamentary polls in Bangladesh, which is likely to be held in January, a senior EU official in Dhaka told Dhaka Tribune on Thursday.
He said the decision was taken by the European Union based on a report prepared by their pre-election monitoring team.
A six-member election exploratory mission of the European Union (EU) visited Bangladesh from July 8 to 23 at the invitation of the Election Commission (EC).
The delegation mainly assessed the scope, planning, budget, logistics and security aspects of the election observation mission.
